Just in case you missed them, here are methods #1-5, #6-10, and #11-20. Thanks for joining me!
16. Pay attention. Watch the screen as the cashier rings up your groceries. Make sure you’re paying what you thought you’d be paying. Sometimes you may be pleasantly surprised and be able to stock up. Other times, like on my most recent shopping trip, the item may ring up for more than it is advertised. Too bad I wasn’t following my own advice… I paid $1.46 for a dozen eggs that had a $.67 Manager’s Special tag on them. Grrrr
17. Cook/bake ahead. While going to the trouble to make one meal, why not make two? Maybe a form of Once-a-Month Cooking would work for your schedule. Having easy meals ready to serve prevents the urge to stop by the grocery store for pricey convenience food and the urge to hit the drive-thru just this once.
18. Plan your menu. Not knowing what to cook for supper is stressful and hard on the wallet. By taking some time once a week (some people prefer to plan once a month) to write down your menu, you’ll know what you need (shop your pantry first!) and won’t spend time and money wandering aimlessly through the grocery store aisles. Don’t know where to start? Check out the weekly Menu Plan Monday round-up at Organizing Junkie.
19. Do it yourself. Cut your own boneless chicken breasts (and then make chicken stock) and pay 1/2 the price of store bought. Same goes for gravy, cream soups, and a host of other convenience foods. As a bonus, the food is often healthier!
20. Shop with reusable bags. It took me forever to catch on to the concept, but after purchasing my bags in June, I immediately fell in love. My store pays 5¢ for each bag used. It didn’t take me long at all to recover the cost of my bags, and now I’m (slowly) making money with them!
Bonus Tip: Grow your own. We have found much success with our garden in the last two years. I’m still a newbie, so I keep it pretty simple, but pulling FREE chopped green peppers out of my freezer all winter sure beats paying store prices! (tomatoes, too) Even people who can’t dig up their yard (or don’t have a yard to dig up) should be able to grow herbs and maybe a few plants in a container garden.
What have I missed? How do you save money on groceries?
This post is linked to Frugal Friday.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
#16 gets me sometimes too, especially on Walgreen’s clearance stuff! I’m usually distracted by my kids and end up paying too much!
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I would definitely pay attention to how things ring up. One of the stores that I go to has a policy that if it doesn’t ring up correctly you will get that item for free. I was not aware of this policy until today. They had a 10# roll of ground beef on sale for $16.90. It rang up as $21.99. I pointed out that it should be $16.90. I just didn’t want to be overcharged the $5 and instead I didn’t get charged at all.
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Amy Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
@Melody, Wow! That’s a huge savings. Glad you were paying attention.
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I successfully grew green bell peppers this year and am so happy to have some in the freezer. The cheapest I’ve ever found them is $1.50, so that can really add up! Next year I intend to grow a few more plants in hopes of stocking my freezer so I NEVER have to buy another green pepper!!
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Amy Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
@Heather, Yes! And I like peppers because they don’t take up a lot of space (unlike the monster zucchini plants I have)
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Your tips have been so informative! Thanks for sharing those:-)
My store pays 5 cents a bag too:-)
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I am lovin this series! Keep em coming!
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Whenever I bake a chicken, I make broth from the chicken bones after I debone the chicken. I refrigerate the broth from when the chicken was cooking to separate the fat from the broth. I scrape the fat layer off the top in the morning. Then I boil the chicken bones with some onion, carrot, whatever veggies need used, add the broth, salt and taste. I usually cool it in the fridge again and the next day measure our 2 cups of broth per ziplock bag and freeze!
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